Potty Training

I realized this week that I am a college educated mom that is a little bit obsessed with potty. Some people call it being busy or doing in your pants. Some people hate to change diapers and some people never go to the bathroom in front of their spouse. One thing that all moms seem to have in common is that they are faced with cleaning up after someone every day. In one of my college classes we studied German fairy tales. One thing that wasn’t really a paper topic since it was over done was German obsession with fecal material. I guess there is a lot of German Literature about going potty. Freud even wrote about what stage in development makes humans obsessed with their own waste. Even reading the material then it was a little bit awkward. I don’t really like bathroom humor because I just don’t think it is funny so why is there so much psychological literature explaining why this type of joke or obsession exists? Germans are much more open about things like an upset stomach or digestive problems. I will always remember the first time someone told me in detail about being sick. I thought it was so strange at the time, why in the world would they share that, or think a lot about that?

Last Thursday Danielle went to the bathroom for the first time on her potty. She has been sitting on the potty every time I go for a while now and finally her moment to really go potty instead of just rip toilet paper up like mommy does had arrived. I am so ashamed at how thrilled I was that my only option was so make a blog entry about it. It has taken me over a week to try to think of what if anything I could write about such a personal topic. Toilet training is just a little bit different than the debate between cloth and disposable diapers. Also what grown adult wants to call everyone they know when someone else goes to the bathroom? I didn’t have to change that diaper. Danielle has gone potty in her potty three times already. She gets M&Ms when she does but I don’t think she has any idea what is going on yet. Maybe when she has more words than ma, da and doggie.

One time someone asked my mother why Danielle wasn’t potty trained yet. She was six months old at the time. Maybe Americans really are on a different time table than others with potty training. I don’t know too much about it but I have heard all sorts of crazy advice, from the people who think a six month old should be potty trained to people who are shocked that I change a diaper before it is full of poop.

How does one end a blog post like this? I still have just as many questions about this as I do about the mysteries of potty.